IMD Tops Bloomberg Businessweek International MBA Rankings

The IMD campus in Lausanne, Switzerland

After publishing a global MBA ranking for the first time last year, Bloomberg Businessweek apparently abandoned its new approach today (Dec. 10) in favor of slicing up its rankings by regions of the world. The new list has IMD first in Europe, Western University’s Ivey School of Business first in Canada, and CEIBS in Shanghai as the best MBA program in the Asia Pacific region.

Based on the magazine’s index scores, IMD leads all non-U.S. MBA programs for the second consecutive year. More importantly, though, IMD scored high enough–with an overall index of 91.5 points–to equal the score of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business which finished in fifth place in the magazine’s ranking of the best U.S. MBA programs published last month (see Businessweek’s 2019 MBA Ranking: What The Tuck?).

The upshot: The new ranking puts IMD’s 90-student, one-year MBA program ahead of such prestige U.S. MBAs as Wharton, MIT Sloan, Berkeley, Columbia, and Northwestern Kellogg. Last year, when Bloomberg Businessweek unveiled a combined global ranking, IMD was effectively ranked 10th best in the world and was the only non-U.S. MBA to finish in the top 20 globally. IMD was also well ahead of Businessweek’s Canadian and Asian winners. Western University, for example, would rank 13th among the non-U.S. MBA programs, while CEIBS would rank 18th based on their overall index scores.

BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK RANKS 22 EUROPEAN MBA PROGRAMS IN NEW 2019-2020 INTERNATIONAL RANKING

In Europe, IMD leads a familiar cast of 22 well-known business schools ranked by the magazine. INSEAD followed IMD in second place, switching places with London Business School, which dropped into third place. HEC Paris rose five places to finish fourth, while SDA Bocconi in Italy rounded out the top five in Europe.

In the Asia-Pacific region, where Businessweek ranks a total of seven MBA programs, CEIBS repeated as the top school, with Hong Kong University of Science & Technology again assuming second place. The National University of Singapore ticked up a place to third, while newly ranked Indian School of Business next.

In the Canadian region, where Businessweek ranks a total of eight programs, Ivey topped the list, boosted by top scores in compensation, learning, and networking. Queen’s University’s Smith Business School took second, while the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management was third, after not appearing in the ranking at all last year.

HOW BUSINESSWEEK RANKS MBA PROGRAMS

After reinventing the methodology for its ranking last year, the magazine’s editors kept its approach exactly the same this year. The list is based on year-old employment and pay data supplied by the schools as well as surveys to students, alumni and corporate recruiters. Businessweek said it surveyed 9,016 students and a total of 14,925 alumni. Of those, 5,175 alumni were surveyed in 2019 and 9,750 in 2018. Employers filled out 2,863 surveys.

The methodology revolves around four indexes: compensation (weighted the most at 37.3%), networking (25.7%), learning (21.3%), and entrepreneurship (15.7%). It’s a rather peculiar way to rank full-time MBA programs, without regard to admission standards and putting oversized weight on both networking, which counts more than “learning,” and entrepreneurship when only 5% of MBA graduates launch companies within three months of graduation.

IMD’s repeat performance at the top came as the school scored no. 1 in three of the four Businessweek indexes: compensation, networking, and learning. IE Business School came in first in the magazine’s entrepreneurship index.

DON’T MISS: BUSINESSWEEK’S 2019 U.S. MBA RANKING: WHAT THE TUCK? or 10 BIGGEST SURPRISES IN BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK’S 2019 MBA RANKING OF U.S. PROGRAMS